Avenir, England/Behind the Scenes
Page dedicated to little interesting things I used to create Avenir. Area calculator The actual area for Avenir is 812 sq km. This is just a statistic I made out of air. Most of the statistics are made, wholly fake, to give you a general idea of how significant that item is. However, to calculate the areas of different areas within Avenir, I had to use a grid process and manipulate the land of Avenir, defining that as 812, square rooting that value to create a grid, then finding a percentage (I used a 2% grid) thereof, declaring how much of each grid that area takes up, then finding the amount of squares as a percentage of root 812. Complicated, I know. Here's a grid I used for Ambrose Hill: *Avenir is stretched, I know. This was done to make it a square, to make finding percentages a linear square instead of rectangles. Values are the same. *For Ambrose Hill, I determined it took up 1.1 squares. This means Ambrose Hill is 2.2% of Avenir's area. The math below shows this, where ah is Ambrose Hill: Inspiration The main inspiration for Blithebeth is Sir Christopher Wren's plan for London. In seeing the layout of the man's post-Great Fire city, I knew that I could create something similar albeit in the image of something out of Knightsbridge or Chelsea, maybe even Paris. For south Avenir, I was particularly inspired by the city of Konigsberg. It's been gone since 1945, totally destroyed by the Red Army in its invasion of Germany, but it was a Prussian and Sambian city, once controlled by the Teutonic Knights and later the seat of power for the Prussian kingdom. As someone particularly interested with central European history, fascinated by Germany in particular, Konigsberg has always stood out to me. Its destruction is symbolic of Europe's fall in World War II, and pictures how destructive it really was. Nowadays, Konigsberg is Kalinigrad, a Russian city far less impressive, exclaved far from the mainland. Kalinigrad places upturned suitcases atop castle ruins. It's tragic. Umber West is drawn from a combination of things. While I have used images from the confines of Romania, it's based on Vermont, USA. A famous photo of Vermont, depicting a tall, white chapel juxtaposing miles upon miles of Appalachian autumnal brown, really inspired my plan for the north-west as a whole which, in my view, is a rather new, excessively modern area, which could be taken from midtown Portland, Oregon or Vancouver. Which brings me to my next focus. Vancouver is the suburb of the Lake of Avenir. It's pretty obvious where the focus came from. Vancouver? Lakes? I figured a Canadian basis is not difficult to picture, given most of it is practically a British exclave to begin with. Canada is a beautiful country, its scenery unparalleled, and I always thought encapsulating a natural north with an urbanised south would combine to make a beautiful city. Holton and Lorcombe are both based on my home city, Birmingham, England. As a native who is also in to history, Birmingham used to be a bustling industrial centre, hit hard by the industrial shift of the 70s and 80s. The city is still strong, and whereas my modern image of Holton and Lorcombe picture them rather miserably, a scene out of the Bronx, almost, I wanted to picture a once-great industrial centre in immense decline. Hence my Konigsberg example, lost cities and civilisations intrigue me more than any long-standing urban centre. As far as I'm concerned, Konigsberg is infinitely more beautiful than Istanbul or Rome because it is now covered by rows of Stalinist showboxes. Rome is a city of the same stock, and will never have the intrigue of a paved city for me. History is about the past. And by that definition, Konisberg has as much history as, say, Warsaw, or Volgograd. Buccleugh is based on various scenes from Austria and Bavarian towns, perhaps even settlements across the Rhine. The idea of a fortified beer town is very unique and adds a lot in terms of Avenirian food and culture. And the ale served in Buccleugh? It could even be Oregonian. Craft beer. Definite cider. Pralcotte, on the other hand, is inspired by Mediterranean wine farms. Scenes out of the game Just Cause 3 encapsulate this. I imagine north-western Italy or south, Niçois France. Buccleugh is a watering hole for middle-aged pub drinkers, Pralcotte is full of rich snobs who want nothing more than to wall its periphery therewith. Ashfield is inspired by a town close to me known as Moseley. It's a heavily middle class area, lots of large estate homes and quaint terraced homes. I wanted the idea of a town people flock to, once which has been around for hundreds of years but has bustled in the last decade, etc. Oxton is inspired by another area near me, known as Solihull. It's a huge shopping area with massive homes and a popular—and all the more modern—shopping centre. And because it's so posh, in recent years it's even split from Birmingham, just showing its progression in the past two decades. I imagine Oxton to be like this; a centre so far out it's the centre of its own city, an old town which has booned in the past few years, where modernity dominates yet feels synonymous with the surrounding heritage. History of the project My vision for Avenir has changed many times, and still does. This project started in 2014. The first revision wasn't until December 20, 2015, but I created an Animal Crossing village waay back in October 2014 known as Avenir. It was a ton of fun. I was also 10 years old, and had only been on Wikia since July 29 of that same year (COPA kill me). I was a kid, no doubt. I'm only 14 now and while it may seem pretty weird, given how "dyed-in-the-wool" my CSS may look, and how much thought process has gone into realising a city, but I'm still a rookie really. I have lots to do and learn, and comparing from where I was on December 20, 2015 to little over 3 years ago on January 2, 2019 I would say I've come extremely far. A lot of what Avenir has meant to me is creating a masterplan. I used to go around the neighbourhood and pick out every nitty-gritty fault with neighbouring houses. A pretty stupid and "autistic" venture, I quote my mother, but it's where Avenir takes its roots. From that point, I've been interested by architecture and by history. On May 28, 2017, I lost my brother. I was heartbroken. I realised my place in life, and it has changed me. In December 2015, I was an extremely childish person, hellbent on attention. I'd criticise buildings for God's sake, as if I were Prince Charles. And the change of Avenir from this up-market, linearly Victorian, totally in-shape heritage pool to a diversified, deepened Bohemia is comparable. It's not all about redbrick terracotta with sash windows and white cornices, it's about diversity and change. I used to think I know it all. Now I'm at the point where I can't rest thinking I do. Just look at December 2015. That person was 11. Now we're 4 years later. Old vs New The original map was pretty messy and ugly, with some strange names, too. Yet, it's come to shape the newer iteration. As you can see, Blossom Hill, Ambrose Hill, Ambrose Green, Blithebeth, Holton, Redenham, Centenary Green, Arendsby, and the City Centre have all returned verbatim. Unity Lake is the former name for Vancouver. Ponce is also the spiritual successor of Wood Brown. The shape is also notably similar (I chose the familiar shape of continental Africa for the borders of Avenir in both iterations). A very obscure one, but the Statute of the Union borders of Oxton are based on the borders of Grim Hill in the older map, featuring a similar north salient. Category:Avenir